Almost 2

So N is almost two now, and I haven't been real good about keeping up with the blog.

In the last month or so, her language skills have really taken off. I don't know if she has 50 words yet, but she is probably pretty close. This morning she has said : open, close, fish, turtle, cracker, shoe, foot, hello, and bye bye. Cracker still needs some work, but it's kinda-sorta there.
Other words she uses now include: mama, dada, night-night, cup, house, dog, cow, duck, walk, ball, cheese, boat, car, six, go, hair, hand, nose, eye, book, baby, Ming-Ming (one of the Wonder Pets), away, and mine. She says "What's that?" and "here go" (here you go) and sometimes something that resembles "thank you". Some words still need a lot of work, including water "wa", Wonder Pets (also "wa"), and Grandmom and Grandpa are both "ba pa". Lovey Bunny is still a strange lalabalala sound that nobody but her can actually make.
Father's Day was very low key. C was still hanging onto a cold so my mom and dad stayed away. Daddy just got over a bronchial infection and we didn't want to risk another one. C had also just flown in from Spain the Friday before, so it was a rather lazy weekend of him getting back on Texas time. I fixed a big steak dinner and C spent some time playing with N out on the back porch. My friend Dawn, whose boys are now teens, gave us this table and it's awesome. Perfect for Play Doh as long as we can stand the heat.
N has gotten in all her teeth except her two year molars and I just looked for them. It looks like one of the top ones may be starting to come in. Not looking forward to that. She had her first peanut butter a couple of weeks ago and loves the stuff. It's hard for me to get used to letting her eat more things now that she has more teeth. She isn't a great chewer at times, but she can handle raisins and now she can handle children's vitamins...the "Flintstones First" and the soft gummy kind.
She is still pretty into crayons, although we've had them put away for a few days and she hasn't asked for them. She likes to watch us play with the Play Doh...she isn't quite there herself as far as doing much with it, but I recently got the roller things to make imprints on the Play Doh so that we can work on using those. We do Kindermusik once a week and she is doing very well in that. She follows along with quite a bit of it and has a good time. She likes to sit on the floor and roll a ball to me and she now has a sit 'n' spin that she does pretty well on. She really likes book with flaps that she can look under and she can work puzzles that have the knobs and the where the shapes fit into their own slot.She understands a lot of what we say. She recently got bit or stung by something and when I would be discussing it with C over the phone she would look over at her arm and raise it up for me. She knew I was talking about it. One thing I have noticed is that she has started emoting. When one of her cartoon characters or another child gets upset, she will look at me with concern and sometimes want a little hug. She will say 'oh mo!" and put her hands up to her cheeks. Adorable. Whenever she sees someone sleeping, in real life or on TV, she turns to me and says "sshhhhh" with her finger to her lips.

Her favorite songs are Wheels on the Bus and If You're Happy and You Know It. She asks for Wheels by climbing in my lap and doing the "beep beep" and she asks for Happy by throwing her arms up and saying "hooray".

Her sleeping has improved dramatically this week. She wakes around 7-7:30 and then often plays quietly in her crib, allowing me to gradually wake up and get motivated. Then she naps around 11:30-12:30 for two hours, and she has been going to sleep at around 8-8:30. She does usually wake and cry at around 12:30-1:30 am, so I move into her room at that point and sleep on the mattress and she goes back to sleep.
Almost two years old. She is holding steady at 25.5 pounds (25th-50th percentile) and she is now 31.5 inches (5th-10th percentile). She is in mostly 24 month clothing now. When her hair is wet, it reaches almost halfway down her back, but curls up quite a bit when dry.

She is such an absolute sweetheart. Very happy most of the time. She can throw a tantrum with the best of them, but she gets over them fairly quick and she loves to give hugs and kisses. When I take her to the mall to play (the parks are deserted in the afternoons this time of year...too hot), she usually makes a friend or two. Older children love to play with her...they lead her around, she copies them, they play with her. I don't allow them to pick her up, but other than that, it's all good. She is not shy and will just walk right up to another child and say, "hello". She is still in parallel play mode, but does interact some with other children. Sometimes these children (usually the hispanic ones) approach me and want to know if she is hispanic. She also often says "hello" to other parents, but she doesn't try to get too close to them or get them to hold her. I get a lot of comments about how cute she is. She definitely exudes personality and let's face it, she is pretty darn cute. She often checks for me and will point at me from across the play area and say, "mama". She loves to climb, but she does show some appropriate caution...doesn't generally go hauling off without any thought. She can climb up and lay on the rail of her crib now, but hasn't tried to go down the outside yet. We may need to put the toddler front onto her crib pretty soon, but I'd like to put it off for a while. I think keeping her in bed with just a toddler rail is going to be a challenge. I'm encouraged by her sleep patterns right now, but I'm trying not to get too excited about it. I don't know how long it is going to last.